The New York City-based health system “provided the 30 graduate medical education slots for use at South Nassau,” according to a statement from the Oceanside-based hospital.

Earlier this year, after more than a year’s worth of negotiations, South Nassau and the Mount Sinai Health System agreed to make the nearly century-old hospital the healthcare giant’s flagship Long Island facility. The professional affiliation is still awaiting regulatory approvals, which are expected to be issued this fall.

Meanwhile, the new residency program marks a key step in South Nassau’s “transformation to a regional medical center and teaching center for the next generation of physicians and caregivers,” the hospital said this week – and “raises the bar across the board” insofar as South Nassau’s medical chops, according to hospital President and CEO Richard Murphy.

Richard Murphy: Raising the bar.

“Our residency program has the dual function of training the next generation of physicians while supporting the hospital’s mission of providing standard-setting healthcare,” Murphy noted. “When residents are onboard and teaching is part of the everyday culture, everyone has to be on their game, so it benefits staff and our patients.”

South Nassau already sponsors ACGME-accredited residency programs in family medicine, surgery and obstetrics and gynecology, in addition to American Osteopathic Association-accredited residency programs in family medicine, geriatrics and Transitional Rotating Internships.

It also sponsors a Council on Podiatric Medical Education-accredited podiatry program – all of which means the new Mount Sinai-affiliated Internal Medicine Residency Program is in fairly elite company, according to Michael Leitman, the dean of graduate medical education and a professor of surgery and medical education at the health system’s Icahn School of Medicine.

“This will be the first medical school-sponsored program of its kind on the South Shore of Long Island,” Leitman said in a statement. “Residents will have exceptional educational, clinical and research opportunities, and it is our hope that graduates of this program will remain in local practices to care for our community.”

The new residency program, which is listed with the nonprofit National Resident Matching Program, is already interviewing medical students for possible enrollment. The program, which is slated to accept 10 first-year residents to begin their residencies in July 2019, began accepting fourth-year medical students – who were invited to join South Nassau for their fourth-year electives – last month.